An intermediate connection apparatus such as a repeater or a router that supports a network connection of various terminals and a control center that supports the network connection of the intermediate connection apparatuses are required in order to operate a network. In this case, since the intermediate connection apparatus is connected with a plurality of terminals to manage and relay a packet which the terminals transmit and receive on the network and there is a limit in the number of terminals which each intermediate connection apparatus can support, terminals of a group, which is divided by a specific region or place are connected to the network through one or more intermediate connection apparatuses.
The control center is connected with the intermediate connection apparatus that belongs to each group to distribute network resources for each group and transmit and receive a data packet to and from the intermediate connection apparatus.
A specific intermediate connection apparatus needs to be monitored in order to test security or enhance or change a function of the network while operating a whole network. However, in order to monitor the specific intermediate connection apparatus, since the corresponding intermediate connection apparatus cannot perform a role performed on the existing network connection, there is a problem in that a partial network or a whole network of the group to which the corresponding intermediate connection apparatus belongs cannot be temporarily operated.
In particular, in a network in which a connection structure in which the control center reaches the terminal through the intermediate connection apparatus is vertical and the terminal is not connected with a plurality of intermediate connection apparatuses that performs the same role, there is a problem in that the network needs to temporarily stop in order to monitor the specific intermediate connection apparatus.
The problem occurs similarly even in a measurement network that collects and manages measurement data by the unit of each terminal or a specific group to which each terminal belongs through a plurality of measurement terminals. In the measurement network, each terminal may be, for example, a measurer that reads an electric usage or a water supply usage for a household and measurers in a predetermined region can be connected to the intermediate connection apparatus of the corresponding region through the network. Further, a local network is constituted by the plurality of intermediate connection apparatuses in order to collect and manage reading data from the measurers in the specific region and the control center is connected with one or more local networks to manage the reading data collected from the measurer connected to the intermediate connection apparatuses in each local network.
In the measurement network, there is a problem in that the local network to which the corresponding intermediate connection apparatus belongs cannot be temporarily operated in order to monitor the intermediate connection apparatus in a specific local network.